Listening

Changing perceptions induced by her loss of hearing are fused in an ongoing adventure described by the author of these musings about life in a silent world. Merker, at one time a director of reading services for the handicapped, found herself among the disabled when a skiing accident some 20 years ago gradually deprived her of her hearing. A feisty woman, happily remarried, living close to nature on a houseboat on Long Island Sound in New York, Merker relies on her hearing guide dog to supplement her lip reading skill. She stresses that ``it is possible for hearing impaired and deaf people to `hear,' to acknowledge cues that indicate the presence of sound. It is possible for us to listen.'' She defines this listening as visual, tactile and intuitive--which perhaps promotes her lyrical expression of this bounty in these pages. (Feb.)